Elim Pentecostal Church And Attached Gate

This is an Elim Pentecostal Church, originally a Methodist church, built in 1896. It stands on Milford Street in Salisbury and includes an attached gate. The structure is primarily red brick with terracotta and ashlar dressings, some areas are painted, and it has a Welsh slate roof with an iron gate.

The street elevation is two stories and comprises four bays, with a gable end facing the street. A single-storey, one-bay deep entrance vestibule is at the north end, and a U-shaped raking gallery extends across the main body of the church, with a one-bay organ chamber at the south end flanked by lower service rooms. The entrance elevation is divided into a one-two-one bay arrangement, with the central bays taller and capped with a pediment containing paired doorways within a projecting surround. Windows have leaded glazing, with coloured glass on the first floor. The building has a plinth and a ground floor rusticated below an impost string. Steps lead to panelled double doors with fanlights in reveals featuring keyed archivolts on flowery-capitaled columns. Outer bays have keyed round-arched recesses with round-arched windows in ashlar architraves with bracketed sills and decorative terracotta spandrels. A cornice runs along the top of the elevation, and a balustrade sits above the central bays. The first floor features a corniced band and ashlar pilasters with decorative capitals between the bays. The central bays have paired round-arched windows, each with two arched lights, a central colonette, a roundel above, and keyed archivolts on clustered pilasters. The outer bays have cross windows within corniced eaved and shouldered architraves. A dentil cornice tops the building, and a balustrade over the outer bays is linked to the central corniced pediment by decorative brackets. The pediment itself has a decorated, dated terracotta panel within its tympanum and ball finials.

The attached gate to the right has panelled piers with knob finials and decorative ironwork to a double gate. The returns feature a projecting front bay matching the front elevation, and other bays are plainer, marked by offset pilaster buttresses, each with a tall, round-arched, traceried window designed with coloured glass contained within a full-height round-arched recess, a continuous hoodmould, and moulded eaves. A lower rear bay has paired round-arched lights to the organ chamber and a four-panel door on a lower outshut with stepped dentilled eaves.

Inside, the entrance vestibule has a coloured tile floor, coloured glass to doors and overlights, and stairs leading to the gallery. The body of the church is characterized by leafy-capitaled iron columns supporting the gallery, which has raised and fielded panels and decorative iron panels. At the south end, an altar rail rests on a decorative iron support. Steps with decorative iron balustrades lead up to a decorative pulpit. Behind the front of the gallery are choir stalls. A proscenium arch with archivolt on plain-capitaled piers is flanked by full-height pilasters and paired fluted brackets. The ceiling is coved and coffered. Original piers contribute to the interior's character. The organ case is panelled, as are the doors. The church is a significant landmark in the streetscape and is valued for its well-preserved interior.